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Women's Peace Tables

From 2015 to 2017
PeaceWomen Across the Globe organised, in cooperation with partner organisations,
60 Women's Peace Tables (WPT) in fragile and conflict-affected areas. The aim
of the Women’s Peace Tables is both to reflect on the role of women in promoting
inclusive peace dialogue and to exchange knowledge about peace-building. In
2018, a new project phase will start which will incorporate the experience of
the previous Women's Peace Tables and other projects.

The Women’s Peace Tables
open a space for conflict transformation processes, as well as opportunities
for for women's voices to be heard, thus increasing the visibility of women peace
activists. In order to make the dialogue sustainable, PeaceWomen Across the Globe’s
local partner organisations follow up the recommendations of the corresponding
Women’s Peace Tables using advocacy, campaigns and discussions with influential
decision-makers, linking them with policy processes such as CEDAW reporting or the
drafting of National Action Plans (NAP) 1325 in order to ensure sustainability.

Context

Although women are
disproportionately impacted by armed conflict, political fragility and
extremist violence, their experiences, knowledge, skills and demands are
significantly undervalued and under-utilised in conflict transformation.
Despite UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 guaranteeing the rights of
women to participate in peace processes, women overwhelmingly still have
limited access to peace negotiations, transitional justice mechanisms and
processes and to decision-making in general. Today only nine per cent of women
participate in peace negotiations worldwide. As a result, gender norms and
ideologies that produce patterns of exclusion disadvantaging women are
reinforced within the process of conflict transformation, leading to the
persistence of structural violence.

The 2018-2021 WPT
programme is a long-term, worldwide programme with the following three
autonomous, yet interrelated programme strands:

1. Strengthening Women’s Effective Participation in Conflict Transformation: In collaboration with its
partners, PWAG will enhance the WPTs in Colombia, Nepal and the Philippines –
all post-conflict countries – and institutionalise an exchange of views and experience
between the partners. In each country, 3-7 local peace tables are held each
year, each of which focuses on the concerns of women at a decentralised level,
in order to increase the local capacities for women’s participation in conflict
transformation. These concerns accompanied by joint advocacy measures for the
participation of women and to promote change on a structural level, are then
conveyed in an annual national women's peace table. This is held, with the
participation of the most important stakeholders, in the capital city.

This
project will run from January 1 2018 to December 31 2021 and the total budget
for the project is CHF 713’640.

2. Supraregional Women’s Peace Tables: The second programmatic strand is the
strengthening of (inter-)regional networks through the organisation of regional
WPTs with a common thematic focus. As a pilot, in November 2018, a first
regional South Asian Women's Peace Table will be held in Nepal with the
participation of partner organisations from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan,
Sri Lanka, India and Nepal. The aim is to initiate a joint learning process and
exchange of experience and to strengthen strategic alliances between peace
activists in the region. In addition to regional exchanges, all participating
countries will also hold women's peace tables in their countries. Based on this
supraregional Women's Peace Table pilot project in South Asia, there will be
further supraregional WPTs in various regions: 2020 (Africa) and 2021 (Latin
America).

The second phase
will run from 2018 to 2021 and the total budget for four years is CHF 202’988.

3. Enabling space for civil society: Civil society organisations (CSOs) have been
affected by the shrinking space for socio-political action for more than a
decade. To counteract this trend, PWAG is continuing to support the
implementation of annual Women’s Peace Tables in selected countries, for
example in Kenya, Burundi, and in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The
framework of these Women's Peace Tables is deliberately diversified so that the
regional partner organisations can adapt the content and format to specific
local needs. Despite the diversity of topics dealt with by the Women’s Peace Tables,
the projects aim to facilitate an exchange between women's initiatives at
grassroots level and local decision-makers. The aim is to provide information
on women's concerns, skills and needs and to highlight the importance of
including and implementing gender-sensitive mechanisms in conflict resolution,
conflict transformation and policy making.

The third
strand will run from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2021 with a total budget for
four years of CHF 383’164.

Global Network of Women Peace Activists

In 2005, PeaceWomen
Across the Globe (PWAG) nominated 1000 PeaceWomen for the Nobel Peace Prize.
These women, all role models, were recognised for their work in building
sustainable peace in their communities. The work of the 1000 PeaceWomen from
over 150 countries was exemplary, and documented in a book as well as online. Ever since the
nomination, the network of 1000 women has remained PWAG’s core resource for all
its activities. The biographies and contact information of the 1000 women have been
partially updated over the past few years. For the network to thrive and be
further strengthened, there is a need to update the women’s biographies regularly
and systematically.
However, the work and
lives of thousands of other women peace activists deserve recognition too;
their expertise needs to be made visible and networking between them promoted. By
so-doing, PWAG will be very pleased to welcome new, younger peace activists
into the network. A comprehensive
platform will be created through which on the one hand, women peace activists can
network and exchange knowledge and ideas in order to learn and benefit from the
network’s wealth of experience and expertise. On the other hand, the platform will
contribute towards increasing the visibility and accessibility of the network. This
will make it possible to make a specific search for various women's expertise
in peace-building.

The project will run
for three years from 2018 to 2020 with a total budget of CHF 153’900.